Why didn’t we get a Gummi Bears video game?

[mbd39 | 2,092]

3 hours ago, Link said:

Gummi Bears is older than all of those other shows /movies, having started in ‘85. The Nintendo didn’t yet have a big foothold in America. So maybe by the time it did, they were not interested in further developing it that way.

Wikipedia says it was “Disney's first major serialized animated television series” and “many of the subsequently-created shows exceeded Gummi Bears in budget and length”. 

Where’s the action in Winnie the Pooh? I can only see it as a boring kiddie game. 

I could see Tigger being a Sonic style platforming mascot.

[Sumez | 3,153]

9 hours ago, Link said:

Gummi Bears is older than all of those other shows /movies, having started in ‘85.

I think this is the only reasonable answer here.

Licensed games weren't designed to draw on nostalgia, but to build the brand. I don't know anything about the exact deals between Disney and Capcom etc., but I bet Capcom got a good deal because Disney were also interested in promoting these shows. Gummi Bears was a very popular show, and I think a game would have made all sorts of sense, but it also makes sense that they would prioritize the new ones.

Hell, the Goof Troop game came out here before the cartoon did, and I was super confused as to why Goofy would try to rescue Pete.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Sumez

[Tulpa | 3,704]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

I think this is the only reasonable answer here.

Licensed games weren't designed to draw on nostalgia, but to build the brand. I don't know anything about the exact deals between Disney and Capcom etc., but I bet Capcom got a good deal because Disney were also interested in promoting these shows. Gummi Bears was a very popular show, and I think a game would have made all sorts of sense, but it also makes sense that they would prioritize the new ones.

Hell, the Goof Troop game came out here before the cartoon did, and I was super confused as to why Goofy would try to rescue Pete.

There was no dedicated Mickey Mouse show on air at the time, but they still did Mickey Mousecapade. The Mickey Mouse Club was active, but that was a live action revival of the original, with old Disney shorts. Likewise, Adventures in the Magic Kingdom wasn't based on any show at all, just the theme park.

[RH | 5,206]

1 hour ago, Tulpa said:

There was no dedicated Mickey Mouse show on air at the time, but they still did Mickey Mousecapade. The Mickey Mouse Club was active, but that was a live action revival of the original, with old Disney shorts. Likewise, Adventures in the Magic Kingdom wasn't based on any show at all, just the theme park.

I'm not sure that one should count because Mickey is a brand character that is a straight-up corporate idol, so I definitely see the suits wanting to make a game with Mickey in it.  Gummi Bears were just a show that already had it's popularity.

Here's my question-- when and how did the Gummi Bears air on TV?  I only recall seeing them on The Disney Channel.  Were they a Saturday morning cartoon?  I slept through most of those, so I don't know, but I don't recall.  If this was a premium channel exclusive, that could be the reason-- it just didn't have wide enough reach.

[Tulpa | 3,704]

Yeah, they were a Saturday morning staple. I think they started on one network, but I remember they switched at some point.

[RH | 5,206]

49 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Yeah, they were a Saturday morning staple. I think they started on one network, but I remember they switched at some point.

Ok, well that is different.  Like I said, I only remember seeing them on the Disney Channel preview weeks, which was always a highlight of that week.  I loved the OG Disney Channel, but we never had it.  Gummi Bears was my favorite show on the network and all I know is that it was on there.  Maybe this show also aired really early in the morning on Saturdays.  Like I said, I usually slept in, getting up on Saturdays between 9:30-10:00 which meant I usually saw one cartoon show.  My brother was the "early bird" and would watch cartoons at 8:00AM on, but not me.  I don't remember much.  Cartoons for me were mostly the weekday afternoon line up which was Duck Tales, Chip n Dales, Talespin, Ninja Turtles, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, etc. and probably one or two more I'm forgetting.  Gummi Bears never aired at that time so it was a rare chance for me to see it.

[Link | 2,878]

In my market Gummi Bears was on Saturday morning at 7, the first current show to air (after an hour of old Jay Ward stuff or Josie and the Pussycats).

[RH | 5,206]

7:00AM?! Seriously, Saturdays were made for sleeping in. What kid gets up at 7:00AM on a non-school day?!

 

[Tulpa | 3,704]

Yeah, I can't remember what time Gummi Bears aired. I do remember missing the first season because they aired at the same time as the Star Wars cartoons (Droids and Ewoks), and I watched that. By the next season Star Wars was off the air, and I don't think the other two networks were airing anything good in that time slot. We also had a VCR by that time.

Disney Channel was one of those mythical premium channels that my family never subscribed to, but starting in 1991 cable companies started showing it for free.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Tulpa

[Tulpa | 3,704]

13 minutes ago, RH said:

7:00AM?! Seriously, Saturdays were made for sleeping in. What kid gets up at 7:00AM on a non-school day?!

 

Probably Central time zone. It was the same for me, prime time started at 7pm, and morning programming started at 7am or even 6am in some cases.

Mountain time was even worse. 6pm prime time and sometimes 5am start of morning programming. Visiting relatives in Denver was weird.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Tulpa

[Link | 2,878]

12 minutes ago, RH said:

7:00AM?! Seriously, Saturdays were made for sleeping in. What kid gets up at 7:00AM on a non-school day?!

 

Um, me, to watch cartoons for 6 hours. Sleeping in is for teenagers. And adults

[Tulpa | 3,704]

Yeah, get some sugar-loaded cereal in you and you're good to go for hours. 80s/90s kids were the original binge watchers.

[Link | 2,878]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Probably Central time zone. It was the same for me, prime time started at 7pm, and morning programming started at 7am or even 6am in some cases.

Eastern. Saturday morning cartoons started at 6 with the oldschool stuff. Prime time 8-10pm. Then 10 o’clock news. 

Before that we were in central, and I’m pretty sure shows started at 6 there, too, with Captain Kangaroo. Except when I accidentally changed the channel to the Planet of the Apes cartoon, which scared me, and I would wake up my dad to fix it. He was not happy.

[Tulpa | 3,704]

I grew up in the Great Plains, but it's been so long I can't remember when the shows started. I do remember talking with my friends on planning out which shows to watch, and getting miffed when they rearranged the schedule and two shows I liked aired opposite each other.

[MiamiSlice | 3,159]

[Tulpa | 3,704]

1 minute ago, MiamiSlice said:

They don't look too dashing and daring to me.

[RH | 5,206]

57 minutes ago, Link said:

Um, me, to watch cartoons for 6 hours. Sleeping in is for teenagers. And adults

Lol, that just wasn't my jam.  I was more of a sleep in and try to stay up late kind of kid.  I often wasn't aloud to, but I would.  Regarding sugar-cereal, that always came in it's due time.  Nothing wrong with sitting down to a bowl of Cap'n Crunch at 9:30 rather than 6:00AM.  Seriously though, even at the younger ages of 5 or 6, there was nothing that motivated me to get up early.  I even know that there were many days my Mom would have to even come into my room and say things like "no one should be sleeping in past 10:00.  Get up or I'm going to have to push back your bed time!"  Begrudgingly, I'd roll out of bed.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

3 hours ago, RH said:

7:00AM?! Seriously, Saturdays were made for sleeping in. What kid gets up at 7:00AM on a non-school day?!

 

I was up at 6am in Saturdays to watch cartoons. I lived in central time and some of the shows were on even before 7.

Also, I would have loved to have a He-Man or Thundercats game on a Nintendo or Sega system.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

18 hours ago, Foochie776 said:

I don’t think it had happy meal toys, I’m thinking you mean the Kellogg’s cereal toys they came out with? 
 

I didn’t realize it had that many seasons, maybe I’m just too young to have been the prime age 

Where they Kellog's toys?  Could have been.

I just know my sister and I had most of the set of them back-in-the-day.

 

I was surprised by the season count, as well.  I bought the first 3 as a DVD set, to share the show with my kids, and when I was getting the discs ripped to the media server and sorting out episode naming, I was shocked that 6 seasons existed.  I only ever saw a couple of seasons on Saturday morning cartoons, and then a trickle of the rest on the Disney Channel "Disney Week" promos.

Edited June 9, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[trj22487 | 350]

I have no memory of Gummi Bears growing up, but a few years ago my ex had bought the DVD set.....that horrific theme song is ingrained in my soul for all eternity

[Tulpa | 3,704]

That theme song rules! So did Denver the Last Dinosaur's theme song.

 

[Sargon | 2]

On 6/9/2020 at 11:38 AM, Link said:

Um, me, to watch cartoons for 6 hours. Sleeping in is for teenagers. And adults

Saturday mornings were the same for me. I would look at the TV guide and plan my morning, determining which cartoons I was going to watch at which times.

Gummi Bears was one of my favorites.

[Hybrid | 447]

 

[phart010 | 1,779]

The OP’s picture shows Aladdin NES as a Capcom game.. wasn’t Aladdin NES done by Virgin interactive??

[GPX | 1,403]

With myself being from Australia, I vaguely remember having seen Gummi Bears cartoons, though I actually can’t be sure. I can say though it wasn’t as popular as some of the other cartoons as mentioned in the OP.

So if my memory is correct, the answer possibly lies in the fact that games in the late 80s were made on their universal appeal, and possibly correlating with the global interests of cartoons in the European and Australian markets as well as the US.